This invention relates to a method and apparatus for instructing students to play keyboard or barred instruments such as the piano, glockenspiel and many other well known instruments of this type. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and apparatus to be used by music instructors to demonstrate to their students the relationship between musical notes positioned in a particular pattern or arrangement upon a conventional musical staff, and the particular tone-producing elements or keys on the instrument responsible for producing the corresponding sound patterns.
Most present methods used by music teachers to instruct students on keyboard instruments such as the piano, involve teaching the student to associate a note positioned on either a line or space of a conventional treble or bass staff, with the correct key on the instrument keyboard. The student is taught that each line and space of the staff may be represented by a letter of the alphabet, A-G, and that each key along the keyboard may also be designated with the letters A-G. Through memorization techniques the student is eventually able to locate a particular key on the keyboard which corresponds to a note positioned on a particular line or space of the conventional staff. This method of instruction although effective, forces the student, at least initially, to rely on a "hunt-and-peck" method to locate a particular key. This slows the learning process and fails to instill in the student any immediate visual recognition of the relationship between the staff and the keyboard.
The method and apparatus of the present invention are intended to replace the conventional "hunt-and-peck" system. Although based on the conventional musical staff, the purpose of this invention is to immediately relay to the student visually, the relationship between patterns of notes arranged on a conventional staff or sheet of music and the particular keys on the instrument which correspond to each line or space on the staff. By using this method the student is able to understand music more quickly without having to stop and locate each note individually.